Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Possession Is 9/10ths Of The Law Dynamite

Hey, did you know that championships are artificial constructs and you can literally just make yourself a champion if you want? Thankfully AEW is here to teach us valuable lessons like “taking a title belt and putting a strip of tape with your name written in Sharpie on it makes you the champion” or “having a belt made and carrying it around allows you to give yourself whatever title you like.” (Demetri Martin had a whole comedy bit about this years ago, but for the purposes of this introduction let’s all just pretend we’re learning these things for the first time.) And that’s not all we learned this week! So without further ado, it’s time for me, your World Wrestling Wreview (WWW) Champion of FilmIronic, to run down all the important life lessons and other less significant moments from this week’s Dynamite from Columbia, SC.

Best Match of the Night

It’s unusual that the opener or main event isn’t an obvious choice for best match of the night, but there wasn’t much on the line this week (no titles defended, in fact) so it really came down to the quality of the wrestling more so than its positioning on the card. With all due respect to CM Punk vs. Max Caster, which was decent but nothing spectacular and mainly served as a further platform for Punk’s rise toward challenging for the world championship, I would say the main event between Andrade El Idolo and Darby Allin was the better of the two this week. Andrade works well against cruiserweights like Darby because while he isn’t the biggest guy in the world, he looks like an absolute bully throwing smaller guys around and using his physicality to dominate them. That works especially well with someone as good at playing the babyface in peril role as Darby Allin, who is sort of AEW’s ultimate “gets beaten down for 3/4ths of the match but somehow makes a comeback late” wrestler. Neither man pulled out anything extraordinary here, with the possible exception of Allin’s crucifix counter off the top rope and maybe Andrade slamming his opponent onto a set of steps turned on its side in the pre-match beatdown. That isn’t to say it was bad or disappointing – heck, it’s an honorable mention for best match on a night in which there were plenty of good matches to choose from – but just that it was not much more or less than what you’d expect given the performers involved.

Another match that was about as good as you’d expect from the wrestlers involved but maybe just a little better was Jay Lethal vs. Jon Moxley. I can’t say whether these two have ever faced off before in their long-running careers, but I certainly can’t remember ever seeing this matchup, so there was certainly some anticipation heading into this one. It certainly lived up to those expectations, delivering a very evenly-fought contest that highlighted their clash in styles to great effect. From the opening bell, it could not have been clearer that these two men come from different worlds, as Lethal extended his hand for a typical Ring of Honor pre-match handshake and Moxley slapped it away because displays of respect have to be earned through violence in the Blackpool Combat Club. Lethal’s flashier offense also clashed with Moxley’s more straightforward technical style, with Mox catching the former Black Machismo in a headlock to counter the Lethal Injection at one point. Lethal hit a particularly impressive elbow drop with Mox a long way from the corner, but Moxley was ultimately able to counter a Figure Four attempt into a Paradigm Shift for the win. Lethal was understandably disappointed afterwards, having lost two matches in a row on Dynamite, but it will be interesting to see if AEW opts to turn him heel or if he undergoes a redemptive arc to get back to the winning ways he is accustomed to. Moxley winning without any backup from the BCC is also an interesting move – he certainly doesn’t need Regal and Danielson to be legit, but there are some intriguing storyline implications that might be furthered by Mox positioning himself as the lone wolf of the group while Danielson is William Regal’s prized purebred.

Speaking of Lord Regal’s favorite beautiful boy, best match of the night honors go to Bryan Danielson vs. Wheeler Yuta. I’ve noted many times in the past how much Yuta has developed in his time in AEW, and this was yet another big step forward for the young star who had the crowd firmly behind him against an undeniably popular opponent. There were plenty of moments that made it easy to root for the young star too – from blocking Danielson’s running dropkick in the corner with a dropkick of his own to forcing the submission specialist into grabbing a rope break just to get out of a particularly tricksy hold of his own. The cherry on top of it all was his defiance even in the face of certain defeat – as Danielson grabbed his arms for the trademark head stomps that almost inevitably end all his fights these days, Yuta spit right in his face. (I erroneously noted it as a headbutt on first viewing, which also would have been cool, but it was obvious when Danielson wiped his face afterwards.) Not surprisingly, though, Yuta still isn’t quite on the Yes Man’s level – he was fighting from underneath the whole match for a reason – so he did ultimately succumb to the Gotch piledriver and probably unnecessary submission. Still, if you watched this match and didn’t see the next breakout star of the company, I would question whether you actually watched it. I feel like Yuta is on the kind of trajectory Jungle Boy or Dante Martin went through, and when he finally beats somebody legit, I’m betting the crowd reaction will be huge.

Best Moment of the Night

There were some good entire segments this week, but I want to start with a fairly small moment that I enjoyed in particular: Danny Garcia claiming the Jericho Appreciation Society “future endeavored” John Silver and Alex Reynolds last week. Doesn’t get more “sports entertainment” than that. A bit larger moment that worked well this week was Thunder Rosa‘s first promo as champ – after being interrupted by Vickie Guerrero and Nyla Rose last week, the new Women’s World Champion finally got the chance to speak her mind, and she made the most of her moment, delivering a fiery promo expressing pride in becoming the first Mexican-born women’s champ in AEW and claiming to be not only a pillar but actually the foundation of the division. Your mileage may vary on some parts of the Undisputed Elite‘s “Championship Celebration” but I found it hilarious, especially the masking tape “nameplates” on the championship belts and of course the cardboard box with maybe five gold balloons that unceremoniously floated out at the very beginning. The tone was maybe a little goofy for people who are supposed to be serious threats to their respective pilfered titles, but overall I felt like the segment as a whole worked.

The obvious pick for moment of the night was Toni Storm‘s debut in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament qualifier match against the Bunny. Storm wasn’t the most surprising choice for this spot, but there’s nothing wrong with making an obvious good choice rather than trying to artificially force an unexpected moment. The resulting match may not have surpassed some of the other quality outings on the night, but it was still an enjoyable enough match and served as a good showcase for the newcomer. You might have expected a less competitive match, especially considering Bunny could not have prepared for Storm specifically, but it establishes a level of expected quality for the rest of the tournament. Storm is obviously the new favorite to win the tourney, but it figures to be a heated competition and we may not have seen the last surprise entrant yet.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

Nothing terrible this week, as you might imagine, but I’ll call out an old favorite: audio issues in Vickie Guerrero/Nyla Rose‘s backstage interview. I thought we had pretty well gotten past them, but just when you least expect it, there they are again. Also, I’m just saying Jade Cargill dismissing Blue Pants…I mean, Leva Bates was a bummer. Sure, she hasn’t been on TV in a while and doesn’t exactly have a stellar win/loss record in AEW, but…c’mon! It would be fun! Live a little!

Parting Shots:

• My new favorite game to play during Gunn Club matches, inspired by Danhausen’s inspired “Ass Boys” nickname, is to come up with alternative titles for the duo. I’ve come up with Gunn Gentlemen, Firearm Fellows, and Booty Boys so far.
• Did people legitimately think Kyle O’Reilly forgot his lines during the Championship Celebration? It was kind of an awkward choice but it seemed obvious to me that it was a bit and not a real botch.
• I had a good laugh at Jake Hager accidentally revealing Santana, Ortiz, and Eddie Kingston before he was supposed to actually throw open the curtains to reveal them – he did a good job trying to cover it up but it was clear enough that you couldn’t miss it if you were paying attention.

That’s it for another week – pretty good show considering there were no title matches and it feels like Double or Nothing is still a long way off. Thanks for joining me once again and I hope to see you all again next week for more Chair Shots!